Watauga Dam, Tennessee

Greetings!

Last week, we stayed at an absolutely beautiful campground in eastern Tennessee.  We were looking for a midpoint between north Georgia and the New River Gorge National Park, and our RV Life tool helped to find this jewel - Watauga (pronounced WAH TAH GAH) Dam Campground.  It is operated by the Tennessee Valley Authority.  The dam was created for flood control and power generation.  We soon discovered that this area is prized by RVers who live close by due to its peaceful and serene location.  We felt so fortunate to get in and have a campsite right on the river.  

The driving overall has been great - going through the Appalachian mountains has been beautiful and of course we've made a few stops at Love's for fuel.  

Rest stop for lunch - beautiful!

We arrived to Watauga on a Wednesday afternoon and the weather could not have been more perfect.

Dinner on the picnic table on the river - Chef Paul cooking delicious burgers!

The next night, we had some guests trying to join us, but alas no.  This Canadian geese family, who had a mom, dad, and 3 tweens, were around the sites often!

Beautiful evening weather - ideal for a campfire!

The campground is small - only 28 sites and the setting was so peaceful and lovely.  We met some nice people, including a nice couple from Marco Island (30 minutes from our home in Naples!).

We stayed 2 nights.  On Thursday, we went over to the Watauga Dam, which was really cool.  It is an earthen dam (vs. concrete) and it's one of the few dams you can walk across in the country, as well as part of the Appalachian Trail.  We had a great hike over to it and over it and the weather was ideal.

A good shot of the "earthen" dam

We are now in West Virginia wrapping our time visiting the New River Gorge National Park - will be posting about that very soon - it has been a great few days.  Tomorrow, we head to Shenandoah National park for 3 nights, then onto Pennsylvania.  

Will be in touch again soon - thanks for following along and for your love and support!  Jen & Paul

On the Road Again! 2026 Summer Adventures Begin!

Greetings friends and family!

We hope everyone is doing great as June begins.  We had a wonderful winter in Naples - enjoyed many visits with friends to include a Caribbean cruise with our dear friends Carol & Chuck Varland.  Jen had a few contracting jobs with two favorite clients and it was a privilege to support their amazing teams!  Paul project managed many improvements and tasks on the Airstream to get it ready for another great summer season. 

The Airstream projects included replacing the trim as well as replacing the flex key on our awnings.  The flex key is a piece of material that connects the awnings to the RV and when Paul was washing the rig, he noticed that this material was very worn.  He contacted our good friend Gary Sands - who has a YouTube channel and they collaborated on this video featured on his channel and it took place in our driveway.  It's 22 minutes and very interesting - Paul is featured throughout, but especially at the end!  

The man and his Airstream doing the Flex Key project

The trim project - which I helped with!

It was silver before and we replaced it with black.

We also celebrated our 25th anniversary in May and spent a glorious week in the Bahamas - Elbow Cay / Hope Town in the Abacos.  We had been there before a few times and it's a very special place.  Paul took a beautiful time lapse of sunrise from the deck of the house we rented (called Poker Face).

Now . . . let's talk 2026 Airstream adventure . . .  Here is the map of our nearly 5-month plan:

We left May 29th from Naples and headed north to Georgia.  We are back at the Top of Georgia Airstream park, which we love!  It's a great campground and located in a beautiful area - we have been hiking each day and relaxing and enjoying being back in the Airstream.

Leaving Naples Friday morning . . . 

Back to one of our favorite spots!

Paul has a drone this year, so we will be sharing fun videos along the way . . .

Anna Ruby Falls

Dukes Creek Falls

Dukes Creek Falls

It feels great to be back in the Airstream again and on the road exploring this beautiful country!  As you can see by our map, we are spending a lot of time in the great lakes region and in areas of the country we have spent very little time in - we are so excited.  We continue the journey tomorrow - will spend 2 nights in Watauga Dam in Tennessee and then onward to our first National Park of this season - New River Gorge National Park in West Virginia.  

Thanks for following along and for your love and support - we will be in touch again soon!  With love, Jen & Paul

2025 Recap - Thankful

Greetings and Happy Thanksgiving!

We have been back home in Naples since Halloween and it is nice to be home.  We arrived just in time for Trick or Treaters and we were welcomed back so warmly by our neighbors.

It is fitting that I type this on Thanksgiving as we are very thankful for our amazing Airstream adventure in 2025 - we were so blessed to see so many beautiful parts of this amazing country.  As we travelled, we gathered stickers and put them on our door - we look forward to adding more in 2026!

We travelled over 20,000 miles in the truck and over 9,000 with the Airstream visiting 24 states, 48 campgrounds, and 13 national parks - here's an overview of our route:

Along the way, we met so many cool people and truly enjoyed our journey.  We also got a kick out of many signs we saw along the way.  Enjoy:

We have shared this one before, but feel it's worth a repeat!

In Garibaldi, Oregon - a big fishing town (obviously)

In Grand Teton National Park, WY - a vending machine with Bear Spray!

This one cracked me up - Boots, Bullets, Britches and Bologna!  Driving through Missouri,

So precise!  In Oregon along the Cascades Highway

Don't mess with the elk!  Mammoth Hot Springs, Yellowstone

We weren't carded . . .  hmmmm . . . 

This is my favorite - no fishing on Fishing Bridge (Yellowstone)

In Olympia Washington (Capitol building in background)

Smart not to shower at a dump station . . . 

I'm not a skier, but not sure I'd want to go where I'd need a shovel . . . 

Snow removal hours . . . LOL

Crazy that this needs to be on a sign . . . 

Another . . . #2.

In Helen, GA 

27 miles to the nearest beer???

Some people don't read signs . . . a lawyer somewhere is having a fit.

DON'T BRING YOUR DOG!

We will start up again next spring when we start finalizing our plans for 2026.  We are planning on heading out in early June.  Thank you for following along and for all of your love and support along the way - it really has been an incredible journey.

Lots of love, Jen & Paul